Magnifica Humanitas

On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence

  • Encyclical by Pope Leo XIV.
  • Published 5/15/26.

    • Introduction

    Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together.

    The res novae (new things) of our time

    Never has humanity had such power over itself.

    Two biblical images

    In order to answer these questions and discern how to navigate responsibly the era of AI, I would like to bring to mind two scenes from the Bible: the construction of the Tower of Babel (cf. Gen 11:1-9) and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem (cf. Neh 2–6).

    Building for the common good

    building for the common good means accepting the limits and weakness of humanity without considering them an error to be corrected

    Remaining human

    We must lovingly safeguard the grandeur of humanity bestowed upon us and revealed in its fullness in Christ, the splendor of which no machine can ever replace.

    1. A Dynamic Approach Faithful to the Gospel

    Intends to present synthetically how the Social Doctrine of the Church has taken shape in the recent Papal Magisterium and in the Second Vatican Council, in order to demonstrate its dynamic character.

    A Church journeying through human history

  • The Church actively participates in the processes by which society grows and is organized, and she offers her own contribution to the creation of a more just and fraternal society.
  • The Church’s vocation and duty to accompany humanity in the specifics of history leads her to recognize that earthly realities possess their own proper character and order.
  • The Second Vatican Council affirmed the distinction between the ecclesial community and the political community, emphasizing that each must operate with full autonomy.
  • History is thus understood as one of the places in which the Church allows herself to be taught by the Spirit about the humanizing power of the Gospel.

    • The wisdom of the word of God in dialogue with the human sciences

  • Saint John Paul II recalled that the Church welcomes the contributions of the social sciences in order “to draw from them concrete insights that help her carry out her magisterial office.”
  • Nourished by this fruitful dialogue between the Gospel and human knowledge, the Church has progressively developed her Social Doctrine, cultivating in history a wise patrimony marked by theological and anthropological coherence rooted in the Christian understanding of the person.

    • Social Doctrine as a shared discernment

  • In this same vein, I too have reaffirmed that the Church “does not claim to possess a monopoly on truth,” because truth is not a territory to be defended, but a good to be shared.
  • This attitude of openness to truth, which is at the same time both one and diverse, profoundly expresses the catholicity of the Church, for she embraces the entire human family yet is also immersed in the concrete situations of peoples and cultures.
  • when the dignity of our brothers and sisters is violated, when politics fails to address the tragedies of humanity, when the economy turns against the person or science oversteps the limits of its competence, the Church — together with other Christian denominations and believers of other religions — must make her voice heard, not in order to dominate, but to promote communion.

    • The development of Social Doctrine from Leo XIII to the present

    The first stages of the Church’s Social Doctrine

    The years of the Second Vatican Council

    The recent Magisterium

    Interpreting history in the light of faith

    2. Foundations and Principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church

    3. Technology and Dominance

    4. Safeguarding Humanity at a Time of Transformation

    5. The Culture of Power and the Civilization of Law

    Conclusion